Chipper European romp for adult girls who have graduated from The Princess Diaries.
Recent college grad (or is she?) sets off on a romantic lark to London and has to quickly readjust her plans.
Lizzie Nichols has finally graduated from college, lost weight and snared herself a sexy English beau. Granted, she only met him one night before he moved back to London, but surely Andrew is as sweet as his letters and as sultry as that accent. Turns out, he's neither sweet nor sultry. Andy lives with his parents, has a gambling problem and wears terrible clothes. To make matters worse, he's trying to fleece the government and is demanding Lizzie's financial help. Time to flee! Fortunately, Lizzie's best friend is spending the summer with her boyfriend at a luxurious chateau in the French countryside, where they are setting up for an elaborate wedding in exchange for free lodging. A room is open to Lizzie if she's willing to help with the preparations. Distraught and frazzled, Lizzie finds herself on the Chunnel, unloading all her internal baggage—including intimate details of what she and Andy did in bed together—to a handsome stranger who offered her a seat. But that's what anonymous train rides are for, right? Oh dear. Handsome Stranger Luke disembarks at the same time as Lizzie—and tells her his own secret: His father owns Chateau Mirac. Soon she finds herself in a fairy tale world of sparkling wine and pool parties—and on an emotional roller-coaster ride when she learns that Luke's lithe golden girlfriend plans on turning the glorious chateau into a gruesome liposuction spa. Oh, and while Lizzie clearly has no trouble spilling secrets, there is one she has kept bottled up all summer—and it's about to pop like a bottle of fine champagne.
Chipper European romp for adult girls who have graduated from The Princess Diaries.Pub Date: May 23, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-085198-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2006
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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